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Christianity was reintroduced to the Midlands at Repton, where some of the Mercian royal family under Peada were baptised in AD 653.[citation needed] Soon a double abbey under an Abbess was built.

In 669 the Bishop of Mercia translated his see from Repton to Lichfield. Offa, King of Mercia, seemed to resent his own bishops paying allegiance to the Archbishop of Canterbury in Kent who, while under Offa's control, was not of his own kingdom of Mercia.[citation needed] Offa therefore created his own Archdiocese of Lichfield, which presided over all the bishops from the Humber to the Thames. Repton was thus the forebear of the archdiocese of Lichfield, a third archdiocese of the English church: Lichfield, the other two being Canterbury and York. This lasted for only 16 years, however, before Mercia returned to being under the Archbishopric of Canterbury.

In 873/4 the Danish Great Heathen Army overwintered at Repton, the only place in England where a winter encampment has yet been located, identified by a mass grave of some 250 individuals, covered by the kerb stone of its former cairn. The Danes had commandeered the church as a stronghold on the cliff above the former course of the River Trent, identified by a D-shaped enclosure formed by a rampart and ditch, no longer visible on the surface. The bones were disarticulated, long bones stacked together with skulls on top. Forensic study revealed that the individuals ranged in age from their late teens to about forty, four men to every woman. Five associated pennies fit well with the overwintering date of 873/4. The absence of injury marks suggest that the party had perhaps died from some kind of contagious disease.[4]

The cruciform Anglo-Saxon church itself has had several additions and restorations throughout its history, including Medieval Gothic north and south aisles in the nave that were rebuilt in the 13th century and widened early in the 14th century, and the addition in 1340 of the west tower and recessed spire.[7] The church was also restored between 1885 and 1886 by Arthur Blomfield.[8]